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Topic: Finished playing... (Read 118024 times)

So...I finished ME1 a long time ago in galaxy far far away. But last night I finally ACTUALLY finished the game by getting all the achievements. Level 60 to 3 consecutive play throughs, and it turns out side missions are crucial. Both Neural Shock and AI Hacking were the ability achievements that had me hung up. I literally spent 3-4 hours getting both of those by loading/reloading/glitching the game. I ended up surfing the net while I waited for the CD's to refresh. It was painful, but now I am actually done.

When ME2 comes in, I will need to clean up 1 single achievement: Brawler. I have to kill someone after I punch them back 20 times.

After just playing through and beating Mass Effect 1 right after playing multiple times through Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age: Awakenings...I gotta say I like Mass Effect better. I had forgotten how epic the final scenes are, combined with a MUCH better musical score. And this is coming from a guy who dislikes Sci-Fi and prefers high fantasy. The final scene of Shepard in Paragon/Renegade stance in front of the random world/space station while the game music crescendos before fading into The Faunts' M4 song gives me goosebumps every time.

I just finished The Force Unleashed 2. It arrived in the mail on Friday, and I played it on Saturday. It took about 10 hours, two of which were spent on annoying series of platform jumps. In other words, the game is short, about a third the length of The Force Unleashed.

The game framework has been improved somewhat; the switch between game menus is much faster than the previous game. When you acquire a new crystal for your lightsaber, you're told exactly what it does. I'm afraid that's the most positive thing I can say about the game.

I experienced a couple of technical glitches on the PS3 version. At one point, the voice and music soundtracks cut out, just before a boss fight. I knew I was being given hints on how to fight the boss, but I didn't know what they were; I had to figure it all out by myself. Actually, this made it the most interesting boss fight in the game. (The final boss fight, against... it's Star Wars, you can't guess? ... was more tedious than epic.) I fixed the audio problem by quitting the game and starting it again.

Overall, TFU2 feels more like an expansion pack that does not justify the full cost of another game. The story is a bit thin; the ending screams sequel. TFU2 goes a long way towards curing me of my Star Wars mania; I'm not sure I'll be as interested in buying TFU3 whenever it's released.

Stolen Memories: This is a short DLC that I am finding not really worth the price. This DLC contains a new squadmate (Kasumi), a bad ass SMG, a new "formal wear" outfit, and a short mission (45min-1hour). I liked everything in this DLC, it was just too short. There were a lot of cool little extras thrown into the scenary that made it appear as a well planned DLC and not something just rushed out. However, like I said, it was on the shorter end of a typical Loyalty Mission. As for the squadmate, Kasumi is very useful, has some decent Dialogue, and some fun skills. But overall, she is not a necessity for a "perfect" squad. If you are a Mass Effect fan you will dig it, but if you are on a budget and only wanting to buy 1 DLC, I would not recommend this one.

Overlord: Rogue VI has taken over a Cerebrus base and only Shepard can stop it. This DLC mission was AWESOME. There was some dialogue, but mainly combat and piloting the ME2 Hammerhead vehicle. The missions were very well constructed wih unique music tied to it (that I actually preferred to the standard combat music). The scenary reminded me of Dead Space with robots, as it is somewhat graphic. As the storyline progresses more is revealed as to what happened with this VI, and the story might be a bit of a Sci-Fi cliche, but it did make me feel something during the final reveal. There are no new equipment opportunities in this DLC, but I highly recommend it. Overall the DLC takes ~2 Hours to get through, which is pretty fair for the price.

Lair of the Shadow Broker: Liara is back and its time to take the fight to the Collect-err Shadow Broker. Apparently the Shadow Broker wanted to sell Shepard's body to The Collectors, so he is a jerk and must die. This DLC takes about 2-3 hours to complete, but the fun doesn't stop there. Liara will be your squadmate for the majority of this DLC, half of which is a chase sequence through Illium spanning several buildings and a car chase. The other half is assaulting the Shadow Broker's base. I personally was let down by the Shadow Broker reveal and was expecting a big twist. Instead I got a pretty sweet boss fight (one of the best in the game). After the missions are over you have access to the Shadow Broker's base, which opens up a lot of extras. You get Dossiers on your team (including dirty secrets like Miranda's sex personal ads), can finance Black Ops missions, can purchase star charts to Ore-Rich planets, and view video surveillance of stuff across the galaxy that happens off-camera. Overall its a very worthwhile DLC if not a little pricey. But the people at Bioware say this DLC will affect things in ME3, so its stock might be higher in your eyes.

Dante's Inferno[/u]

I've been wanting to play this for awhile, but honestly have been kinda intimidated by it. Firstly, the game is VERY short...I clocked just over 7 hours by the end of it all. But that isn't necessarily a bad thing, because as beautiful/hellish as the level designs were...I don't think I could stand being in Hell much longer. Gameplay is pretty typical of the genre, with combat allowing you to use 2 basic weapons, the scythe (Unholy) or the cross (Holy). With each soul you collect you can purchase new abilities in either Unholy or Holy tree, and access to these abilities is granted through Unholy/Holy levels. You raise these levels by Punishing or Absolving the damned souls you find in Hell. I went the Holy route and beefed up my Cross attacks. By the end of the game I got 4/7 Unholy levels and 7/7 Holy levels. The game also features various relics that allow you to customize Dante. The majority of the relics can be leveled up based on use, and have requirements of having a specific Unholy/Holy level. Relics vary in abilities such as receiving bonus Unholy experience, having combo's being unblockable, increasing time window for combo multipliers, ect...

The other big aspect of this game is the platforming aspect. Since this game takes place in Hell, they really go nuts in this department. The entire game you are descending. The platforming is EXTREMELY difficult, in large part due to a camera that you can not control. On the plus side, they have VERY quick death reloads...like they expected you to die. The puzzles were also fairly difficult, solely for the fact that they don't give you any hint how to solve it or what you are supposed to be wanting to do. I had a hard time running around in an M.C. Escher inspired room, mainly figuring out what exit was my actual goal.

Level design is AMAZING. The amount of detail put into these levels is absurd. I hesitate to say its beautiful because of the hellish nature, but each circle is very unique. Lust stands out the most as so many structures are shaped like penises and vaginas. Its not subtle at all. The other interesting aspect I liked was that not every Circle of Hell had an endboss. Sometimes you fought the boss at the end, some you fought at the beginning, some you avoided while fighting minions, and some had a platforming/puzzle challenge.

The final fight was a pretty tough boss fight with Satan (obviously). If I had not gone Holy and did not have a fully upgrade magic ability called Divine Protection (basic immunity + health regen), then I probably would have died. However, Satan also countered Cross attacks so I found it more effective to attack with the scythe (which I had almost no points in). The Satan model was also a little distracting as he had...a certain appendage that hung down below his knees flapping around as he moved. Fortunately, I was not the victim to any attacks that involved him beating me with said appendage.

Final verdict, good game but not for everyone. I can see people getting frustrated with the platforming aspects. And for being called a "God of War Clone", I'll say its much more unique and stands on its own in the genre.

Dante's inferno was pretty good right up till the end, (echoing yhatzee here...) I feel that it fell short in the design of the last few levels it just took on your typical gothic architecture and finished it off. It would have been nice to go out on a high note rather than have the best looking levels at the start. That being said the first bit of hell was fantabulous. Also I never did notice Satan's appendage... not sure how given your description

Dante's inferno was pretty good right up till the end, (echoing yhatzee here...) I feel that it fell short in the design of the last few levels it just took on your typical gothic architecture and finished it off. It would have been nice to go out on a high note rather than have the best looking levels at the start. That being said the first bit of hell was fantabulous. Also I never did notice Satan's appendage... not sure how given your description

If your screen was dark I could see it...errr...see that you couldn't see it. But it was pretty hard to not notice it as Satan was taking menacing steps towards you. I also agree about the last few levels not being as well designed as the early ones. I was disappointed with the 8th Circle of Hell, or as I am going to call it "10 Most Annoying Platform Jumps Ever" Circle of Hell. I was also expecting more in the 9th Circle as opposed to just dropping in on the big man. One interesting thing to note is that the game does "accurately" depict Satan as a prisoner of Hell and not a ruler.

After playing the demo, the main reason why I didn't buy Dante's Inferno is that I read the original poem (Dorothy Sayer's translation, which I like very much). Turning it into an action/adventure is the equivalent of turning "Moby Dick" into a game in which Captain Ahab endlessly spears monster whales: The graphics are great, but it misses the point of its source.

I'd have to say Dante's inferno was rather inspired by the poem, especially given the detail put into make the first few rings of hell well... hell . Watching the dev journals/diaries whatever they're called gives evidence as to how much they dove into the source when designing the game, they also justify their deviations from the poem as a means to get their interpretation/points across.

Yes they altered the story but interpretation isn't a terrible thing, sticking strictly to a poem without reading into it and taking from it what you feel it should represent/be kind of defeats the purpose of poetry imo. "Openly disrespects it" feels rather... well harsh

"Openly disrespects" is the correct wording. Dante's "Divine Comedy" was an allegory of different types of love (love of self, love of others, love of the divine... among others). The tortures of Hell were described, but they always had a poetic meaning, describing those who had abused love. There was no redemption from Dante's Hell, because the spirits knew they belonged there. Those who deserved or wanted redemption were in Purgatory.

(Keep in mind that this description is coming from a Jew/Wiccan. Christian mileage may vary.)

The game "Dante's Inferno" focuses solely on displaying lots of demons and other horrific images. Dante-in-the-poem is guided through Hell by the poet Virgil; Dante-in-the-game slays demons with a bunch of combos moves. Dante-in-the-poem finally meets with his poetic muse, Beatrice, in angelic form at the top of Mount Purgatory; Dante-in-the-game is trying to save his wife Beatrice who appears to him naked and in pain.

And so on.

Again, to use an analogy, if someone came up with a game that had Hamlet slaying hordes of evil knights to have a final boss battle with Claudius, would that be a legitimate re-interpretation of the depth and imagery of the original play?

If someone wants to create a game with a character that goes into the depths of the Underworld and slays lots of demons, while chasing the image of a naked lady, that's fine... but please don't call it "Dante's Inferno." The poet Dante deserves better.

At the risk of de-railing this thread I'll attempt one more time to sway.

I wont ask you to play the game because you stated you hate it by its genre so you'd likely not see past that.

I could go on throwing in muddled justifications of why I feel the game does the poem "enough" justice to be named after it and in the spirit of it but, as I am not an English major and am as scatter brained as they come, I'd likely end up leaving everyone dazed and confused. I'd also likely not do much to convince you as any form of structured argument would be lost in my ramblings.

So instead I'll simply state that the game was good enough, and the story was compelling enough, that it has brought the 14th century poem to a new generation. If at least one person was inspired to read it (myself) because of this game it doesn't matter how accurate of a portrayal it was, how much it butchered the story, how badly it missed the point, it kept this classic from being another "required reading" that no one gives a shit about beyond credits for some English course. If the "poet Dante" deserves to be forgotten rather than re-born into a generation of video game playing, ADD, uncultured swine, then I think you need to reassess what you feel he deserves.

The game "Dante's Inferno" focuses solely on displaying lots of demons and other horrific images. Dante-in-the-poem is guided through Hell by the poet Virgil; Dante-in-the-game slays demons with a bunch of combos moves. Dante-in-the-poem finally meets with his poetic muse, Beatrice, in angelic form at the top of Mount Purgatory; Dante-in-the-game is trying to save his wife Beatrice who appears to him naked and in pain.

I can see what you're saying, but I think you are not giving the video game storyline a fair assessment since you are basing it on the trailer/demo versus the entire poem.

At the risk of giving spoilers to an action game, I'm going to try and defend it. The in game Dante is different from the Divine Comedy Dante, and thus his interpretation of Hell is going to different. Towards the end of the game it is stated that Dante is not really in a generic Hell, but rather this whole place is his personal Hell. Thus the journey is flavored more to the Crusader Dante who has a taste for violence. Within each circle of Hell Dante in game is faced with the sins that led him here, and as he descends he has to come to terms that he is responsible for all that has befallen him and his loved ones.

As this happens Dante's character does shift and his goals change. From the demo it appears as though Dante is simply refusing to die and going to Hell to save his wife. As you progress through the game you find out Dante did die and this was his version of going to Hell. His wife made a gamble with the Devil that Dante would not cheat on her while on the Crusades, and he did so the Devil took her soul. Dante eventually accepts that both he and Beatrice are dead and that he is eternally damned, but still wants to save Beatrice at least.

By the end, Dante in game has accept his sins, sought redemtion without expectation, and attempted to reseal the Devil in his prison without hope of his own escape. Through all this he is allowed into Purgatory in the closing scenes.

Its an interpretation obviously, but I still can't accept "openly disrespects the source material" as an accurate depiction. I'm not asking you to play the game, but its hard to accept such a condemnation from someone who has only played/watched the demo. But the sentiment is understandable in the same vein of those who say "the movie wasn't as good as the book".